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I don't know why but i like this show more when Gonzo handled it, and despite of all my criticism on Gonzo on their previous animes, i still feel that Gonzo works better for this kind of show. Not really sure if AIC can bring SW on the same level as Gonzo did before, but i guess a first few episodes of this won't hurt my summer schedule.

I remember this was posted in some other forum some time ago. I'm not the one that translated this.
Credits go to the translator and the magazine guys that did the interview.

Part 1

Q&A Page

Upon hearing about the settlement of the broadcast, we launched a "direct attack" to get the truth from director Takamura Kazuhiro, character designer Shimada Humikane, and world setting & military history planner Suzuki Yoshiaki.

Q: What kind of story will season two have?
A: It will have a greater number of cheerful episodes than the first season. The setting of the Adriatic sea, and its endlessly brilliant sky and warm climate had an influence perhaps. Also, in the broadcast, it's a time when everyone has been set free. (Takamura)

Q: Will the colors and design of the pants change?
A: The pants are their pants to the end. They are part of the uniform, so they will not change. (Takamura)

Q: How much time has passed since the first season?
A: Around six months. It would have been okay to start directly after the first season, but Takamura told us even the witches need a bit of time off. His words are full of love (laugh). (Shimada)

Q: How is the production going?
A: Well, leaving that aside. The striker unit and costumes, and the design of the Neuroi have been decided in fine detail. We are all working very hard to be able to show you the witches in motion. (Takamura)

Q: How much will Lynne appear?
A: It's not like I'm always thinking about how to use Lynne (laugh). However, one episode will make good use of her. The depth of the witches' trust in each other will be shown through Lynne's actions. (Takamura)

Part 2

Q: Has anything been difficult in the production?
A: There are too many things left over from the first season that I want to include. I also wanted to put in military devices... However, with limited time and in the midst of struggles, it's necessary to focus your energies on the important things, but, with director Takamura at the helm, we are taking care not to overlook those parts as well. (Shimada)

Q: Will the relationships between characters change?
A: The Miyafuji and Lynne, Eila and Sanya pairs will stay the same as the first season. The various characters' personalities will be retained as in the first season. This season, the pairs will naturally be connected, and it will be a story of all 11 strike witches. Incidentally, in the first season, it wasn't until after five episodes that all the witches had lines. And so, this time... Well, look forward to the actual broadcast. (laugh) (Suzuki)

Q: Will there be new characters?
A: As previously announced in last September's event, Takei Junko from the game version will appear. In addition to that, more new witches may appear. Please wait and look forward to it. (Takamura)

Q: Anything to take note of?
A: Pretty much all of the striker units have been revised. However, even saying that they are new models, it's not like they have suddenly powered up, and even if you don't know about it you can still enjoy it. There are airplanes that served as the models, and so the striker units will inevitably be replaced, and people that understand that will be able to enjoy it. What's more, we have obtained amazing sounds that can't be found in Japan, and so please take note of the sound effects, and particularly the sound of the new striker units. (Shimada)

Part 3:

Q: Tell us frankly, what things were you paying special attention to while making it?
A: The intense image of the "pants" tends to stand out, but, it's a story of comrades in cooperation, growing, and protecting their precious friends. That's not to say there are no other stories like it.(?) What's more, my policy for making stories is that when the story is over, even if just a little, I want a development where the world really has become a little better. (Shimada)

Q: Please tell us the highlights and your comments!
A: Honestly, our intention was to make everything about it a highlight. I wanted to make a work where you want to watch every week the live broadcast, and then to buy and rewatch many times the DVD. [TL note: BUY SW DVDs] Because that's our duty as the creators. (Takamura)

Q: What kind of story will season two have?
A: It will have a greater number of cheerful episodes than the first season. The setting of the Adriatic sea, and its endlessly brilliant sky and warm climate had an influence perhaps. Also, in the broadcast, it's a time when everyone has been set free. (Takamura)

So it will be more fanservice & yuri lovey-dovey moments? I thought this series was more inclined to be a war oriented one? Oh well they busted the neuroi in the last episode afterall..

Q: Will there be new characters?
A: As previously announced in last September's event, Takei Junko from the game version will appear. In addition to that, more new witches may appear. Please wait and look forward to it. (Takamura)

Ok, i like this fact~ Hopefully they're from the novels. ^

Q: Anything to take note of?
A: Pretty much all of the striker units have been revised. However, even saying that they are new models, it's not like they have suddenly powered up, and even if you don't know about it you can still enjoy it. There are airplanes that served as the models, and so the striker units will inevitably be replaced, and people that understand that will be able to enjoy it. What's more, we have obtained amazing sounds that can't be found in Japan, and so please take note of the sound effects, and particularly the sound of the new striker units. (Shimada)

So Lynette and Shirley's strikers will now sound like a Rolls-Royce Merlin and that the German girls (Save Trude..) will have Daimler-Benz DB605 engines? cool ^^

Sounds like Strike Witches-turned-So Ra No Wo To. With ecchi.
The yuri fan-boy in me is going "hell yeah!" While the part of me who thinks on reasonable logic is thinking this is going to bomb. Really badly. Still, I liked the first season, so I'm bound by loyalty to at least watch this.

Considering the latter was compared to the former at the outset, this means the show is remaining itself.

I know, so I guess I should've said it's becoming more like So Ra No Wo To. The original Strike Witches season was the life of the Witches, as they struggled to learn what they were fighting against. But it was predominantly action-ecchi, with the plot revolving around combating the Neuroi.
So Ra No Wo To had minimal action, and revolved more around the girls learning what they were fighting for, emphasizing character interaction. So when I say Strike Witches becoming more like it, it means it looks like we won't be getting as much action.
Which is a pity, as I rather enjoyed the silly fanservice during flight, and the show's excuse for it.

First off the Neruoi aren't dead people that only watched the anime might be forgiven for thinking so, but all that happened was a major node of their operations in western Europe was destroyed. They originated in eastern Europe and most of there attacks had been direct there and into the middle east according to other sources so there's still shit tons of them around. (The interview even mentions them)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimura sensei

Q: What kind of story will season two have?
A: It will have a greater number of cheerful episodes than the first season. The setting of the Adriatic sea, and its endlessly brilliant sky and warm climate had an influence perhaps. Also, in the broadcast, it's a time when everyone has been set free. (Takamura)

So you know take the focus OFF the good parts that made the show stand out a bit against the flood of moe shit and wading hip deep into it instead... yeah I can't see this ending in boredom and disinterest at all! I'd really hoped that with S1 as "proof of concept" we'd be able to get more "meat" in S2 like you see in the novels and extra info, instead it appears they're going to exact opposite way. I'm not looking for "grimdark" here, but this is a fucking war story it shouldn't exactly be TOO "lighthearted"!

My interest just took a serious hit frankly. I'm not enough of a stupid git to not give it a try, based on one line, but I now greatly fear everything good about S1 will be tossed in the interest of more Moe bullshit. I REALLY hope this is overstating it or maybe it will be longer (IIRC we still don't have an ep count) so he just means in TOTAL... oh who am I kidding here.

*Starts checking his parachute and ejection seat so he can get out when the death spiral begins.*

Quote:

Q: Has anything been difficult in the production?
A: There are too many things left over from the first season that I want to include. I also wanted to put in military devices... However, with limited time and in the midst of struggles, it's necessary to focus your energies on the important things, but, with director Takamura at the helm, we are taking care not to overlook those parts as well. (Shimada)

This though makes me ever so slightly hopeful, but I just hope "the important things" weren't "cram as much yuri fan service and moe as possible into this mother"

Quote:

Q: Anything to take note of?
A: Pretty much all of the striker units have been revised. However, even saying that they are new models, it's not like they have suddenly powered up, and even if you don't know about it you can still enjoy it. There are airplanes that served as the models, and so the striker units will inevitably be replaced, and people that understand that will be able to enjoy it. What's more, we have obtained amazing sounds that can't be found in Japan, and so please take note of the sound effects, and particularly the sound of the new striker units. (Shimada)

Also makes me mildly hopeful that they might be considering some other factors though his "not like they have suddenly powered up" line makes me nervous by it's mere mention. There was little enough that acutally looked like period air combat in the first one, I was really hoping that S2 might give us something better in that regard.

So yeah this has no exactly filled me with glee and I see a dark cloud hovering over the closest thing to an air combat anime anywhere in sight at the moment... *sigh*

"STRIKE WITCHES 2 ~Egao no Mahou~" (笑顔の魔法; Magical Smile), sung by Yoko Ishida, same as the first season. The OP single will include the song, an acoustic version and, if one orders the super limited edition, a DVD with live versions of the past two themes.

Edit: The ED has been confirmed as "Over Sky", with the first version being sung by Yoshika and Mio (the new Mio, that is.)